


RTB - [Return to Base]

by paxnirvana



Category: Sentou Yousei Yukikaze (Battle Fairy Yukikaze)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-14
Updated: 2010-09-14
Packaged: 2017-10-11 19:45:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/116248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paxnirvana/pseuds/paxnirvana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story blows out the whole end of Operation 4. You have been warned.  If you don't care about spoilers... enjoy anyway! ^_^</p>
            </blockquote>





	RTB - [Return to Base]

~*~*~*~*~

Rei Fukai breathed out once, slow and deep, as his finger tightened that last fraction necessary to launch missiles; eyes fixed not on the targeting display, but on the interface with Yukikaze. The plane shuddered as a missile leaped away. RAM engines howled their fuel-devouring song within him. He could hear Jack, shouting behind him, his words meaningless. Only the sound of his voice registering, deep and rich and so familiar.

And so necessary... Almost as necessary as... He blinked... breathed in...

Yukikaze banked infinitesimally right as the JAM in front of them dissolved in a fountain of water and flame, avoiding mutual destruction nimbly with that one move. Then they were past the second Earth-bound ship they had saved and beyond in a blink that lasted for half a heartbeat and an eternity in his sea-dazzled mind.

He had seen faces turned up toward the sky on the deck below, so close did they pass to the ship Most of them washed to white with shock and fear. The knowledge of pending death was burned into twisted features in that frozen millisecond before the relief could set in -- before eyes saw the JAM explode and brain could process the fact that they would live after all.

He let Yukikaze scream up in an arc, rising high above the blast zone of the destroyed JAM, the both of them scanning the area thoroughly, as they banked, looking for more JAM even as Jack's sharp breath released in his ears. Smoke and flame still belched from the dying frigate in the distance, staining the pure blue skies of Earth with the black pall of destruction.

"Ah, so close... I thought we'd lost it." Jack's voice, clearly relieved.

Rei scanned the skies around them warily, but Yukikaze stayed silent. No other JAM had come. They'd taken out the three who'd jumped through the Passageway before them. Battle-focus dropped away from him then and he carefully throttled the engines back even as Yukikaze began to chide him with the insistent beep that meant they were dangerously low on fuel.

"Jack," he said quietly, scanning readouts for any sign of damage even as the blood began to pulse slightly faster in his ears. "We'll end up in the water." Everything stayed green except the yellow fuel warning.

A soft, faintly breathless, chuckle sounded behind him. "Don't worry. You can have all the fuel you want."

He looked down at the carrier beneath them on the sea, still rolling from the explosion of the JAM off it's starboard beam.

"From there?" he asked, a smug sense of satisfaction filling him. The ship appeared completely undamaged. Once more they had confounded the JAM's plans. The fuel warning beeped continually. He frowned slightly. They had stopped the JAM, but maybe at the cost of their own return to Fairy...

"The UN Charter gives us the right," Jack said reassuringly. Knowing him so well. "They have to give it to us."

The new engines worked better even than he had been promised. They were faster than the JAM now. Nearly faster than their own missiles. Faster than the designers had expected even. The wobbling flutter as both he and Yukikaze had adjusted to the new thrust levels had embarrassed him. It wouldn't happen again, he vowed silently, double-checking Yukikaze's systems as he brought them around, shedding altitude to prepare for approach. Perhaps there was something to the air of their mother planet that the engines favored over that of Fairy even as it made them devour fuel like a starving thing. He listened as Jack ran frequencies and contacted Primary Flight Control of the carrier. The Air Boss snapped at him when he reported their fuel situation.

"Eagle 5, we'll send a fuel plane up," they were told.

"Negative," Jack said, an answering snap to his voice. "We're too low on fuel. Requesting Emergency Landing as guaranteed by Japanese ratification of our UN charter."

There was a distinct hesitation. He looked over his shoulder at Jack, only to find him glaring out the canopy toward the ship below them, his expression grim and determined. The fuel warning continued to sound.

"Acknowledged," came the answer at last. "We are clearing the board for you, Eagle 5. Emergency Landing approved. Begin approach on..."

Vector, wind and flight path information followed. Jack glanced up, becoming aware of his stare at last even as part of his mind automatically noted their instructions. The faint hollowness he saw in Jack's eyes tore at him. The lack of respect accorded them had not escaped him, particularly since Yukikaze had just spared the life of every person aboard that ship. Was the pain in Jack's eyes for him then? Not that he gave half a damn how others saw him as long as he was allowed to fly. But Jack... He let out a soft huff of breath as his gaze narrowed and shifted to fix on the carrier below.

Earthers were fools.

He began approach. Angled in, dropping Yukikaze in sharply toward the heaving deck below. He heard, but ignored, the radio voices as they began screeching in his ears that his approach was too high, his speed too low and focused instead on Jack's low bark of amusement instead. Saw the Fresnel lights fast-flashing green at him, warning him he was too high for their catch-wires as well. He let his lips curve up slightly as Yukikaze cruised serenely across the deck, several feet above the catch-wires.

He wondered, then, if some of the deck crew had noticed they had no tailhook to deploy.

He wondered, then, if anyone on Earth really understood the MAVE design at all.

He back-fluttered all canards, shifted thrust beneath and forward sharply and pulled the nose up a fraction, dropping Yukikaze lightly down on the deck just beyond the fourth and final catch-wire with a soft bounce. Wheels were in motion and he was already taxiing them toward the side of the deck away from the landing strip to clear the strip for any following craft. Yukikaze shifted the crew pod back, raising them up, and folding main wings high. They could see astonished faces turned toward them from the deck outside, eyes and mouths open wide in shock.

He brought Yukikaze to a halt on the deck beyond the heavy double white line that marked the landing strip and locked the brakes. The canopy lifted and opened and the bitter cold wind of Antarctic Earth rushed inside driving out the lingering traces of Fairy's atmosphere. Rei stripped his own helmet off even as he heard Jack undo his harness and stand up with a groan of relief.

The deck crew just stood and stared at them. Not one of them came forward, even to tie them down. A grave breach of protocol as well as a breach of ship-board security, he knew. Maybe they were hoping they would fall over the side and save them any trouble... He stifled a surge of bitter annoyance and turned away, looking at Yukikaze's interface instead, watching the soothing flow of the data screen. He idly wondered how angry it would make the Japanese Navy if he were to fire the anchor bolts that had been installed for the Banshee IV mission into their carrier's flight deck. He made no move to do so, but simply watched the low fuel warning blink at him, futilely wishing the tanks full again so that they didn't have to deal with this parochial Earther stupidity.

"What a welcome," Jack said in disgust as he looked around. Finally, they saw a man in a plain gray dress coat hurry out of the island and approach them across the deck. The man saluted them sharply.

"I am Master Chief Ishikawa, Press Liaison," the man said in heavily accented English. "Regarding your request for fuel, we are contacting the FAF through the UN for confirmation of your status. Fueling will not begin until clearance is received."

"Thank you for your consideration," Jack said with the kind of stark formality that told Rei just how disturbed he was by the Earther's stalling. He turned to watch as he heard Jack step out of the cockpit and onto the wing, saw him snap to full attention and stiffly salute the man below. "I am FAF Special Forces Major James Bukhar. Please inform your Captain that I wish to speak with him immediately."

"Of course, sir, right away." The man below jumped, going wide-eyed behind his glasses, and saluted Jack back smartly before scrambling away across the deck through the crowd of still silently staring deck workers.

Jack didn't usually pull rank, but this was a special situation, Rei understood. Jack turned to him and smiled smugly, clearly pleased by the man's nearly fawning response. The sailors standing nearby began to break up at last, returning to their duties around the flight deck. But still stopping frequently to gawk and stare at the ship and men from Fairy. As if _they_ were the JAM. As if they were... alien.

Rei shook his head once and unlatched his own harness. He shifted to put his helmet on the seat as he climbed out of the cockpit. Jack stood on the wing beside him, helmet still on, brief amusement already faded away.

The cold wind of Earth swirled around them. So cold and sharp and clear. Nothing like the sticky-cool, faintly oily air of Fairy. It felt ever so subtly wrong against his skin, through his hair. The air of Earth. As it was wrong for Yukikaze to be so low on fuel and trapped here in this place it had never experienced before and that Rei had few, if any, good memories of...

He looked at Jack, standing so stiff and grim beside him. He wanted to reach out and touch Jack's arm. Feel the solid strength of him. The need ached in him, but he dared not. The carrier deck crew was still watching them like germs on a slide under a microscope. The weight of their borderline hostile stares was more than just beginning to get to him. He remembered the weight of stares like this from long ago as the suspiciousness of native to outsider. From Japan... where he had been born, and gone to school, but had somehow never belonged... He knew his own expression had gone remote and cold under the weight of it. Almost as cold as the air around them.

"You okay?" Jack asked suddenly, blue eyes darkening beneath lowering brows as he swayed toward him slightly against the rolling of the carrier's forward motion through the sea. He knew then that Jack wanted to touch him too, but held back. The confirmation of need alone managed to ease the crawling feeling of invasion from being watched so closely -- even if only a little bit. For Jack, he could endure it.

"Yes," he said, glancing down and away from the warmth growing in Jack's eyes. Knowing he had to be the one to break their locked gazes or Jack might shatter protocol completely and take him into his arms right here in front of the already suspicious Earthers. Which would likely only _further_ delay the delivery of fuel even if it would make them both feel better, he speculated darkly. He wanted out of this place and back in the air safely with Jack and Yukikaze as soon as possible. "The engines are very powerful, as promised, but we should have had a drop tank."

Jack heaved a sigh then, and from the corner of his eye he caught the motion of Jack's hands rising, but only to work at the chin strap of his own helmet. Oddly, he was both relieved and disappointed. "Well, we certainly weren't expecting the JAM to break through the Passageway right now," Jack said. "They haven't even tried in four years. I wonder whose ass is getting chewed for this back at Command right now."

They exchanged tight looks, the knowledge of what he had seen on the Banshee IV all those weeks ago burning inside of him. And in Jack, he knew.

"Hn," was all he said as Jack tossed his helmet onto his seat and ruffled his hands through his hair in exasperation.

"Well, let's check out Yukikaze ourselves since none of these idiots seem inclined to help," Jack said with a dark look across the deck at the still staring crew. Rei glanced into the cockpit at the pulsing fuel low light. He didn't see any other indicators of distress from his plane.

He glanced back at Jack's face then, saw the raw need smoldering there, and nodded quickly once in agreement. Checking Yukikaze for battle-damage would keep them both occupied, after all. And away from each other. And would only do Yukikaze good, if they found and repaired something the internal systems could not detect.

He slid off the wing to the deck, aware that Jack was right behind him. He could feel the barely-leashed tension from Jack thrumming like Yukikaze's engines across his senses, powerful and deep and essential. Rei avoided meeting his gaze deliberately, knowing he would not be able to deny the answering need in himself if he met Jack's eyes again.

Flying with Jack in Yukikaze was faintly... exhilarating... it seemed. For the both of them. And if the crew of this ship weren't watching them so closely...

"I'll take starboard," Rei said abruptly, ducking his head and running his hand along the still-warm skin of the plane as he circled forward to cross to the other side. Behind him, Jack grunted agreement and finally turned his devouring gaze toward their only means of transport back home.

~*~*~

Rei sat on Yukikaze's wing, legs dangling over the edge, absorbing the faint warmth that still seemed to linger in the plane's composite skin despite the continual chill of the wind. "When can we go back?" he said before he could stop himself.

They had finished their check of Yukikaze ten minutes ago. Which meant they had been left waiting for nearly half an hour now. The flight deck around them had been cleared of all other fighter planes and was now being used as a helicopter staging area. Retrieving the wounded -- and the dead -- of the badly damaged frigate's crew.

"Even though it wasn't our fault, we did get them involved in the war," Jack said from his place leaning against Yukikaze's hull below him. He seemed to find the warmth in the plane enough to overcome the near-polar temperatures too, because he unzipped the top of his flight suit as he straightened up and stepped away from the plane. But then the sky was a brilliant clear blue dome above them and the single yellow sun was beating down on them strong and bright as well. "So they can't just say, 'welcome back to Earth'," he said, his voice low.

Rei let air escape him in a sharp sound that was just short of a sigh. "We aren't the ones who attacked them."

Jack paused by the nose of Yukikaze, at the open arc where the crew pod locked when in extended flight. He leaned on the plane again, staring off into the distance through Yukikaze's open hull toward the devastated ship beyond. The one they had been delayed too long to save... Rei could sense Jack's frustration, his disquiet, his resentment. It made his own heart beat seem heavier in his chest.

"From their point of view it doesn't make any difference..." Jack said wearily.

"Hello there!" a female voice called suddenly. Jack reared back, startled away from his position, and began to back slowly toward him. Rei looked at him curiously, then blinked as an older woman walked around the nose of Yukikaze, her hand trailing over the ship's skin gently. Her expression was soft and wondering. Almost awed. "Oh, what a wonderful airplane. How lovely. It痴 the latest model for the Special Forces, isn't it? FRX-00, re-designated the FFR-44M2 now." Jack made a strangled sound of shock and exchanged worried looks with Rei, alarmed by this stranger's knowledge. The woman took a step closer, her gaze traveling over the two of them now too; she was apparently pleased by what she saw. "Without you two, this ship would be in great danger. Thank you." She bobbed her head, smiling broadly at them both, her gaze meeting his briefly before shifting back to settle on Jack. Rei felt suddenly exposed. Disquieted. As he did when around Captain Foss.

From below him, Jack spoke with amazing politeness considering his shock. "Excuse me, you are..?"

The woman flinched, blushed. "Oh, I can't believe I... I'm so sorry, I'm Lynn Jackson. I'm a journalist." She pointed to the bright blue armband pinned to her heavy coat that blatantly stated 'Press'. Rei was not comforted. He climbed to his feet, stared down at Jack's rigid back and watched it jump again after a moment in shock.

"Lynn... ah! The author of 'The Invader'!" Jack said, taking an eager step toward the woman now. Rei recognized the name of the Earth-published non-fiction book that had been popular on base a few months ago. Popular enough to beat out even the latest shipment of porn and mystery novels as the top rentals from the base library for a few weeks back then. He'd never read it himself, but he knew Jack admired it. He turned away, climbing up to stare into Yukikaze's cockpit again, at the interface. Wondering. But it just continued to flash the slow 'low fuel' warning at him. Leaving him on his own to listen to Jack talk to this strange woman who knew too much about them to make him feel any ease in her presence at all.

"I'm honored a member of the FAF has read it," the woman said, sounding truly pleased.

"It's a good book. Well researched," Jack said. "I'm James Bukhar. And he's..." He heard Jack's soft sound of disappointment as he turned to find him gone, but he didn't turn to face Jack for fear of having to acknowledge the woman in some way. "...Rei Fukai. Pilot of Yukikaze."

"Yukikaze. What a nice sound," she said, managing the Japanese word with credible ease. But then she was visiting aboard a Japanese Navy vessel. It made some sense that Japanese not be totally unfamiliar to her. "'Blizzard', yes? It's a good name."

"It's what we call it," Jack said, the hint of smug pride that always appeared in his voice when he talked about Yukikaze's name was plain to Rei's ears. "You came here to...?'

"For the press conference. And to do interviews. If it's okay, I'd like to ask you some questions..."

She trailed off suddenly and Rei lifted his head sharply, catching the heavy sound of approaching footsteps over the distant thump of helicopter rotors. The Press Liaison was back -- but this time with an escort. Two soldiers armed with rifles. He watched Jack's head lift and his back stiffen again.

"The commander will see you now," the master chief said with careful formality, gaze never shifting as he saluted Jack crisply. "Allow me to take you to the commander's office."

"Understood," Jack said curtly. Then he turned and gave Lynn Jackson a casual salute. "Until later." He did not look back at Rei, but simply stalked off on the heels of the master chief, his long stride forcing the shorter man to half-trot to stay ahead of him. Jack didn't appear to even notice as the two guards fell in heavy step behind him.

"To finally come back to Earth..." Lynn Jackson said, the note of unhappy unease in her voice finding a ready echo inside of him.

Rei found himself standing at the forward edge of Yukikaze's folded-up wing, staring after Jack's retreating back, his hand clenched on the missile mount beside him as he watched Jack walk through the blatantly staring, muttering crew with his head held high, but with his hands flexing into and out of fists at his sides as he followed his guide to the central tower of the ship -- the island. Jack disappeared through a hatch leading inside to darkness. Rei's gaze remained fixed on the place he'd last seen sunlight flash off bright blond hair.

"People of Earth now feel the war is so far removed from them," Lynn Jackson said quietly, "that they can treat the JAM as an excuse for military expansion."

He pondered her oddly phrased words for a moment. Finally felt driven to speak. "You don't consider yourself of Earth?"

She turned to face him, startled and he lowered his gaze reluctantly to look at her. Her eyes were wide and soft and somehow gentle, yet wise. "Maybe that's true," she said with a small shrug and a soft, rueful smile. "And while you might act like an alien, the sound of your voice is much sweeter than I thought it would be." She laughed, the sound somehow innocent and bright, but all he could do was stare at her, wordless and unsettled. Without Jack to interpret for him, to intervene, he was at a loss. Was she mocking him? Or praising him?

He turned back toward the island, jerking his gaze away from this strange woman. Wished Jack was there beside him right now to ask her the eager questions he'd no doubt had about her book. Closed his eyes briefly and tilted his face up toward the single sun, weary. Even the shadows fell strangely here.

"Forgive me, I've been too forward and offended you, haven't I?" the woman said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "And you're even Japanese like the crew of this ship, aren't you?" She sighed quite obviously. "Oh, I've just wanted for so long to have the chance to interview an actual front-line member of the FAF. And you... well, you destroyed the JAM before they could destroy this ship. I should be more grateful, shouldn't I?"

He opened his eyes again. Noted the position of the sun in the sky and idly wondered what season it was here on Earth. It was spring on Fairy, as near as they could tell. Two suns and only a slight axial tilt made for uncertain seasonal changes, yet he found them more comforting than Earth's now. He jumped down from Yukikaze's wing. Walked the dozen paces away from his plane to stand at the edge of the carrier deck.

After a moment, the woman followed him. He could hear her lighter steps trailing behind him, even over the shouts of the crew and the hydraulic hum of the lifts moving airplanes back into position on the deck now that the grisly work of the helicopters in retrieving the bodies of both wounded and dead from the other ship was done.

He stared out across the vast sea. Smelled the salt and cold and engine fumes from the ship. Wondered what the place Jack had come from on Earth was like.

Jack had offered to take him there, when the war was over. Deep into undeveloped countryside, open and wild. With few people around. Only land and sky and the elements.

He thought he might even like to see Jack there. Lie with him out under the stars and wonder which point of light was Fairy...

He caught the motion from his peripheral vision as Lynn Jackson came to a wary stop a few paces away from the edge of the deck but did not turn his head to watch her. She stood for a long moment with one gloved hand over her mouth, the other braced across her stomach as she peered cautiously over the edge. The steel-blue sea frothed wildly several hundred feet below and just beyond the toes of his boots. She glanced at him, then over the edge again, shifting forward carefully until she spotted the draped net strung just below the line of the deck. It was there to catch unwary crew blown over the side by jetwash, he knew. He supposed she had been aware of that as well, knowing what she did of the military, the war and Yukikaze.

She crouched down, huddling in on herself in silence as she stared out blankly to sea as well.

It didn't take long before she was talking to him again, her words almost like the wash of wind and waves, relentless and wearing. "I don't really understand why I'm so focused on this. From the very first time I saw the JAM on TV when I was a little girl, I was afraid. I think I needed to understand what I was so afraid of. So from that moment, I started to investigate the JAM. My family hated it. I argued with them that it's a human crisis. Now it seems forgotten by all. Everyone has forgotten that on the far side of the Passageway is a planet called Fairy where the war goes on. But the JAM are still a real threat to this world." She stood up, oblivious to the terrible drop beyond them now, and he could sense the sudden conviction radiating from her as she stared at him. "To compete with this kind of enemy we _must_ resist them. We have nowhere else to go."

He let out a puff of breath against the cold wind and her words. Remembered a room and a soft lap. Gentle hands stroking through his hair. Then gentle hands that tried futilely to soothe the crushing despair that had filled him when they told him Jack had not sent for him... how the fluttering in his mind had grown subtly stronger then... feeding his own disbelief... of those who were JAM... until their elaborate ruse was tripped up by something so petty and human as love...

He wondered, suddenly, what the JAM truly sought.

"Hey, FAF!" He turned at the shout, thoughts scattering. Saw men in the purple vests of fuel handlers approaching his plane at last dragging hoses. He spun sharply on his heel, Lynn Jackson and her disturbing words forgotten for the moment. He looked around for Jack, frowned when he did not see him yet, then curtly instructed the 'grapes' in how to fuel Yukikaze. He stood with his hand on the nose beneath the kanji, watching them closely as they completed their job with great speed and evident skill. He was glad of that, at least. Reassured that Yukikaze, at least, would be treated properly.

Fueling was complete before Jack returned. When he finally did his expression was stormy, his jaw tight. The same master chief escorted him back to the deck -- without the armed guard this time at least -- and tried to gather up Lynn Jackson and guide her off the flight deck. They were cleared for immediate launch, it seemed. The Japanese Navy wanted them gone. Lynn Jackson balked, speaking to the man firmly, but with a smile as she turned back to follow Jack a few paces toward Yukikaze. Jack stopped to speak with her with a small smile of his own, nodding to her in a reserved fashion. Rei watched from the wing as they spoke briefly. One hand gripped the edge of the cockpit beside him tightly, his helmet in the other.

He was ready to leave. More than ready to leave. He very badly wanted Jack in the seat behind his again. Safe and secure. Wanted even more badly - as he watched Jack speak with some passion now to Lynn Jackson - to feel Jack's lips against his, despite how cold they would no doubt be, and likely lightly chapped from the wind as his were already. But he wanted Jack's breath mingled with his again. Wanted to look deep into Jack's eyes and see the same need he had always seen reflected there once again.

The need for _him_.

The need that this Earth-side crew would not understand. The need the JAM, he realized suddenly, would take away from him if they could... from Jack... like John before...

"Jack!" he called sharply, interrupting them. And the bright blond head turned at his cry, startled, and puzzled blue eyes met his silently pleading gaze. He tilted his head ever so slightly back toward Yukikaze and a broad smile bloomed on Jack's face in response.

Jack turned back immediately and offered his hand to Lynn Jackson - suffered a sudden hug from her instead with good grace - then curtly saluted the hovering master chief before jogging the rest of the way over to Yukikaze. He levered himself up on the wing even as Rei drew on his helmet. He heard Jack come up close behind him. Felt a familiar grip on his shoulder and was startled by how hard he had to fight to keep from turning and catching Jack by the collar and pulling him into a kiss. He fastened his helmet firmly instead, risking a look at Jack only when it was safely buckled.

He was startled by the weary tension that lined Jack's face. The angry aggravation still lingering in Jack's eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, dismayed.

"Better now we're going back. That captain's one officious little prick," Jack smiled at him, patting his shoulder firmly, but it was a forced smile, he could tell. "I wish I could have had a chance to talk to Lynn Jackson more, but right now I just want _off_ this damn ship." Jack let out a heavy gust of breath, somehow managing a better smile afterwards. "And I know you do too..." Rei nodded in agreement, not able to force a smile even for Jack. He wanted to be back in the air -- with Jack -- right _now_. He stepped over the edge of the cockpit and into his seat, dropping down into it heavily, hands already reaching for the harness buckles. Jack leaned over him suddenly, catching the closest strap and clicking it deftly into place over Rei's heart. He felt the quick heat of Jack's breath wash across his chin between the arms of the helmet front, the damp heat of it stinging his wind-burned lips faintly. He closed his eyes at the frustrating incompleteness of the caress as Jack drew back again, and opened them slowly only to find Jack's gaze locked steadily on his, the blue eyes gone dark with desire. He heard the low whir of the cockpit camera as Yukikaze focused on them both. Wondered if the telemetry history that Captain Foss would download later would include these minutes and what she would say about it later if it did. He almost didn't care...

"Let's go back," he said quietly, still lost in Jack's eyes. And Jack finally nodded, moving away so that they could go. Yukikaze flashed the pre-flight list on the screen before he could key for it, eager to return too, it seemed.

To Fairy where Jack had discovered him, first reached out to him, taken him under his wing. To the base where Jack's orders were followed without question, and the enemy was clear to all, even if the enemy's shape was threatening to change. To a mess of a room in a city far underground on a planet somewhere very far away where he had found a surprising contentment in the things that happened between them on the bed there, inspired by Jack's steadfast love.

He glanced back, watching as Jack took his own seat. Waited to hear the sharp click of all four harness buckles before he answered Yukikaze's demands, no matter his own eagerness to leave this ship, these people, and this world behind.

They worked swiftly through the pre-flight checklist together, Jack's voice sounding reassuringly rich and deep behind him as he called out completed checks. Fuel was the most welcome item to verify of all. They had more than enough to get them back through the Passageway. He wound up the engines and started to close the canopy even as Jack waved an energetic goodbye to Lynn Jackson up on Vulture's Row, the observation deck just below Primary Flight Control. He wondered then - for the first time - how a writer and journalist like her had managed to arrange permission to be aboard a ship like this - at a potential battle zone that had become an actual one - in the first place... But then the aircraft handling officer in his bright yellow vest on the deck in front of them was waving him forward, toward the launch catapult. Their landing gear was sturdy enough to take an assisted launch, but Yukikaze didn't need it. He snorted softly in disgust. It was time these Earthers learned exactly what they were dealing with... He began backing them up in a broad circle.

He heard Jack snort behind him as the handler suddenly froze, then started racing toward them waving them off frantically as they backed with increasing speed toward the side of the ship. Rei looked over his shoulder at Jack to see his joyful thumbs up as he picked up immediately on his intent. Rei let a small smile form under his oxygen mask even as the outside radio began to beep at them insistently. He savored the broad smirk on Jack's still mask-less face even as Yukikaze fluttered the rear canards up. Then the back gear was dropping over the side of the deck, and he was yanking the nose up, adding more trust to that already diverted to the ducts beneath the airframe to give them a push away just enough to achieve clearance from the personnel nets on the side of the carrier as Yukikaze plummeted backwards over the side of the ship.

Jack was laughing outright behind him, deep, wicked chuckles that sounded infinitely satisfying to Rei's ears. Yukikaze was already shifting balance precisely beneath his hands that felt so steady on the controls as he diverted main thrust behind and beneath them so they balanced beside the ship and over the water on a pillar of raw thrusting force like a rocket ship.

He applied more power slowly, listened to the new engines purr, the sound edging toward a full-throated roar as they lifted them slowly over the edge of the carrier's deck. Scanned the shocked faces of the crew in their rainbow of vests as they skidded to abrupt halts on their way to crash positions. He smiled to himself, still enjoying Jack's hearty laughter as Yukikaze rose gracefully ever higher into the air, spinning slowly beside the forward-steaming carrier as if hung from a string.

"She's laughing," Rei noted quietly and mostly for Jack's benefit after picking Lynn Jackson out with ease in her bulky yellow coat up on Vulture's Row where she stood beside a now white-faced master chief who was gripping the rail in front of him in evident horror. The journalist waved back wildly and energetically, and he presumed Jack behind him must have waved at her first. He let Yukikaze drift forward the length of the ship then, riding the tail of thrust with apparent ease. He wanted every one of the crew who had stared at them, snubbed them and treated Jack with less than utter respect to get a good, long look now.

"I bet they're having kittens up in the Pri-Fly right now," Jack said, his voice rippling with amusement as he clicked his oxygen mask into place and the last amber light on Rei's panel disappeared. Yukikaze knew he watched the backseat's condition closely when Jack rode there. He could care less if the carrier's Primary Flight Control deck officers were furious with him for this as he once more verified that his whole board was green.

"No," Rei said softly, as he clicked over the afterburners, his lips twitching despite himself beneath his oxygen mask, "I think it's full grown cats by now."

Then he slid the throttle all the way forward and Yukikaze roared obediently and leaped upward into the brilliant blue sky eagerly amid Jack's peals of laughter. Leaving the carrier far, far behind in a surging fountain of flash-heated sea water and billowing steam.

Heading for the Passageway back to Fairy.

Where they belonged.

\- - end - -


End file.
